$100 Car and the Start of a Useful Education
In the summer I bought a car, a 1951 Ford. It cost me $100 dollars and was worth maybe $25. I was a kid. But, I did learn how to fix everything on it. It never looked very good with its old blue oxidized paint. But I replaced the cracked windshield and tuned it up very well. It would go 104 miles an hour. This car was responsible for me learning how to use tools and how the cars actually work. I foolishly decided to rewire it. Once begun, I had to finish the task. It took many hours. It gave me a new freedom to travel and I liked it. It was also a big mistake and created many new problems. The image is of a restored '51 Ford worth $10k or more.
One evening on our way into town, the differential failed and locked at 50 miles an hours. We screeched to a stop. The car would not go forward, but it would go backwards. So I decided to try to drive back to the base. If I could make it there, I could work on it at the base auto hobby shop and possibly repair it. We drove slowly in the dark backwards with people walking to lead me. When we got to the main base highway I could see better, so there we were tooling along about 30 mph in reverse. We were in the correct lane for the direction we were going, but that did not impress the police officer who stopped me. He told me to, “Get that piece of junk off of the road.” Since we were only a half-mile from the base, we continued on. The gate guard just shrugged his shoulders and waved us in. The next day Bobbie Guimbellot drove me to a junkyard where I bought a whole rear axle for $10. We did not have proper equipment to work on the car with both rear wheels off of the ground, so we borrowed two of the wooden cases that coke bottle came in. (Each barracks had a coke machine in it and the cases were there for the empties—a six-ounce coke cost six cents.) We jacked up the car and shoved the cases under to act as jack stands. We removed the defective axle and had the new one in place when two officers came up and asked what they should tell our mothers. Bobbie was under the car and said, “Tell her that I was a good soldier.” We explained all that we had done and that we were nearly finished. They let us continue provided we would not go under the car again. We agreed and finished our work.
The starter on this car never worked well and often I had to push it to start it. The barracks parking lot had a gentle slope to it and I parked with the rear wheels on the curb so as to get a better running start. One day I got a ticket for parking on the grass. There was no grass within 100 yards of the car. I had to take the ticket to our squadron's First Sergeant. He looked at it, looked at me, wadded up the ticket and through it over his shoulder into is trash can. The main tenant at Webb was Air Training Command. Their primary emphasis was training new pilots and other support staff. They liked to march in parades and do other military *stuff*. They were not happy the Air Defense Command (the 331st Fighter Squadron) did not participate. Our colonel told that we would consider that if the ATC staff would also participate in our readiness alert drills. They declined. To punish us, they began issuing many tickets for minor infractions.
The starter on this car never worked well and often I had to push it to start it. The barracks parking lot had a gentle slope to it and I parked with the rear wheels on the curb so as to get a better running start. One day I got a ticket for parking on the grass. There was no grass within 100 yards of the car. I had to take the ticket to our squadron's First Sergeant. He looked at it, looked at me, wadded up the ticket and through it over his shoulder into is trash can. The main tenant at Webb was Air Training Command. Their primary emphasis was training new pilots and other support staff. They liked to march in parades and do other military *stuff*. They were not happy the Air Defense Command (the 331st Fighter Squadron) did not participate. Our colonel told that we would consider that if the ATC staff would also participate in our readiness alert drills. They declined. To punish us, they began issuing many tickets for minor infractions.
Bobbie E. Guimbellot was the roommate I had for the longest period of time and the one I remember the most. Bobbie was a well meaning man. He came from Louisiana (I no longer remember where). Although Bobbie was unremarkable in looks, he possessed something else that still amazes me. Often when we would walk in town or in Midland, TX where we would often go in my car, women (girls really) would cross the street just to meet him. On one occasion, one talked to him for maybe five minutes. He received a letter from her the next day. He did not answer. A week later her mother wrote accusing him breaking her daughter’s heart. I have no idea what he said in those few minutes but somehow it impressed the girl deeply. And, this was a common occurrence with Bobbie.
Bobbie was no money manager either. He was always in debt, bouncing checks and scrambling to make ends meet. He was not dishonest. Just the opposite but still he always underestimated his finances. Once his mother sent him a check for $75 out of the blue. He deposited it and wrote checks against it. His mother’s check bounced. Then so did his. Apparently, his financial abilities were inherited. Bobbie was a Christian and always talked about “praying through difficulties”. Still quite good advice.
Bobbie also walked and talked in his sleep. Actually he could function quite well when he was not awake. He did have a different look to him. So often we would coax him back into bed from various locations in the barracks.
One hot night before we were roommates, being bored and being a practical joker like my father, I took a roll of 2” masking tape and covered the door to his room. The doors opened in. In those days barracks rooms all shared a common restroom (latrine). During the night he opened the door and walked into the tape which wrapped itself around him. Did I mention he had a great deal of body hair?
Well, Bobbie was still a delightful person. I loaned him $50 once. Someday he will pay it back.
Shortly after arriving at Webb AFB, I began getting better attention from the medical community. First they decided I needed glasses. It was a pretty minor correction. Now military glasses were downright ugly. Essentially they were light pink—the color of the plastic they were made of. I bought some black Rit Dye and dyed them (I had two pairs) in a latrine sink. The sink had a dark color for a long time. I seldom wore the glasses then, but by 1964 they were usually on my face. They are still there today, but my vision has improved quite a bit over the past 10 years. I no longer require them to pass my drivers' test. I have had to have cataract surgery and opted for the better lenses (read that as they found more money in my wallet). I still wear glasses for distance vision, I can read quite well without them. I still have no restrictions on my driver’s license.
Growing up in a poor family, I had only visited the dentist once in my young life. In the military, they undertook to repair some of the damage to my gums. Now my parents both had false teeth by the time they were 30. My hope was then that I could at least last until age 30. Well, at age 67 I still have most of my teeth. One small front tooth was pulled in 1978 and I have a bridge there—it frequently hurts. All of my impacted teeth were pulled around 1972. These extractions were quite routine. Now I have had a number of root canals in my life to maintain my teeth. In 1996 I found a good dentist who has helped me maintain my teeth without intervention. Now that I am on Kwajalein I hope that will continue. I fell off of a ladder in 2014 breaking my mandible, four ribs, my arm in three places, $11k later I have a lot of new dental work.